High-density housing on State Street and preserve golf course? Yes, please | Opinion

A plan to build 750 townhouses and apartments on State Street and put high-density housing along a key public transportation corridor would be a welcome development by itself.

But the fact that developers are proposing all that added housing and still preserving the open space of the River Club golf course makes the proposal all the more attractive.

Garden City Council members heard hours of testimony about the development last week and are scheduled to take up the matter again Monday. We urge council members to approve this creative and forward-looking project.

Some of the neighbors, for whom this development would be in their backyard, are opposed to it for a variety of reasons. But those reasons don’t pass the smell test.

Some expressed concerns about the possibility of increased crime because of the apartments. This is a misperception that just needs to go away. It’s absurd.

Just about everyone has lived in an apartment at one time or another in their life. This stigmatization of apartments needs to end. Too many people in the Treasure Valley need an apartment, and as more people move into the Boise area, the need will become even more acute.

Rents have been on the rise and have become dangerously too high for too many people.

Rent in the Boise metro area has increased more than 37% since 2020, according to Apartment List, and the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Boise is $1,375 a month, while a two-bedroom rental is $1,595, according to Zillow, as reported earlier by the Statesman.

If we want to stem a homeless problem in the Treasure Valley, and make our area affordable again, one good place to start is increasing the supply of apartments.

Some residents also complained to the Garden City Council about the high density. We can think of no better place to put high density than along a perfect public transportation corridor. Hundreds of people living in those townhouses and apartments will be able to step outside their door and catch a 10-minute bus ride straight to downtown Boise.

We need more density in Boise, and the proposed development is in the perfect spot for it.

Neighbors also complained about the development’s proposed walking and biking paths — as if that were somehow a bad thing.

There’s no way any city official should shoot down a development over opposition that the development encourages people to — gasp — bike and walk.

Finally, if neighbors want to keep the golf course, this is going to be the only way to do it, while still providing new housing and preserving the open space required for an 18-hole course.

Imagine trying to do things the typical, urban-sprawl way by putting 750 housing units on a quarter-acre each or even a tenth of an acre in that space? You’d lose your golf course pretty quickly.

Garden City Council members should recognize this proposal as the innovative, creative and sustainable solution that this development represents.

It checks all the boxes: preserves open space, adds to Boise’s housing stock and puts attractive, quality high-density along a major public transit corridor.

Approve this one, and let’s get more developments like it.